I. ENGLAND, I stand on thy imperial ground Not all a stranger; as thy bugles blow, I feel within my blood old battles flow, -- The blood whose ancient founts are in thee found Still surging dark against the Christian bound While Islam presses; well its peoples know Thy heights that watch them wandering below: I think how Lucknow heard their gathering sound. I turn and meet the cruel, turbaned face. England! 't is sweet to be so much thy son! I feel the conqueror in my blood and race; Last night Trafalgar awed me, and to-day Gibraltar wakened; hark, thy evening gun Startles the desert over Africa. II. Thou art the rock of empire set mid-seas Between the East and West, that God has built; Advance thy Roman borders where thou wilt, While run thy armies true with his decrees; Law, justice, liberty, -- great gifts are these. Watch that they spread where English blood is split, Lest, mixed and sullied with his country's guilt The soldier's life-stream flow, and Heaven dis- please! Two swords there are: one naked, apt to smite, Thy blade of war; and, battle-storied, one Rejoices in the sheath, and hides from light. American I am; would wars were done! Now westward, look, my country bids good night, -- Peace to the world, from ports without a gun! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HYBRIDS OF WAR: A MORALITY POEM: 4. THE MORAL by KAREN SWENSON BEDTIME by FRANCIS ROBERT ST. CLAIR ERSKINE THE ILIAD: ACHILLES OVER THE TRENCH by HOMER THE OLD MAN'S COMFORTS AND HOW HE GAINED THEM by ROBERT SOUTHEY IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 51 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN by AESOP |